Editor - Mayor Ron Dellums should heed the old saying: lead, follow or get out of the way. Perhaps it is time for him to get out of the way so that the city of Oakland has a chance to prosper. We need a mayor who not only has a vision, but also has the skills, determination and ability to get the job done.

Dellums provided great service in Congress, and I am grateful for all those years. What is needed now is change. No longer are we satisfied with rhetoric, hollow promises or lofty theories. This city needs help now.

Oakland is now without a city manager, fire chief and chief of police. The budget deficit continues to grow. City services continue to deteriorate. Dellums commissioned an expensive management report that concluded that he needs to show up for work at 9 a.m. I believe I could have written that report for less than half the cost.

Dellums must give Oakland the hope it deserves, and resign his post as mayor.

No confidence

Editor - Why not cut off the head of the snake? Calling for a no-confidence vote on Police Chief Wayne Tucker is a good start.

Now what we really need is a vote of no confidence for the one person responsible: Mayor Ron Dellums.

I hereby ask Oakland's City Council for a vote of no-confidence for our mayor. For once, please have some spine and make a statement. You have been compliant and sat on the fence long enough. We cannot afford two more years.

Wide divide

Editor - How could I have been so foolish to think that the results of the last election might have convinced the Republicans in Congress to cooperate with the new administration and not block its every move?

I read that even before President Obama arrived on Capitol Hill to talk to Republican members of Congress, the Republican leader had already told their members to vote against the stimulus package ("Obama crosses partisan divide," Jan. 28).

So much for open minds and working together to solve the momentous problems facing our country.

JUDY TROY

San Rafael

Prop. 13 not guilty

Editor - I'm pretty tired of hearing about how Proposition 13 is the cause of California's financial woes. Let's look at the facts. California homes sell at a cost of several times the national average and turn over far more often, which negates the income effect of 1978's Prop. 13.

California has the largest economy of any state by far, providing a huge business income tax. It also has the highest state personal income tax and one of the highest sales tax rates.

In all, the state should be awash in cash as it drains its citizens of their hard-earned dollars. Instead, we have a poorly rated educational system, pathetic roads and we're tied with Louisiana for the lowest credit rating of any state. It's not what's coming in - it's what's going out.

RICK KOHL

Campbell

Stimulus pork

Editor - Some writers have opined that Republican politicians have no right to criticize the current administration for wasteful spending because they are guilty of massive fiscal waste during their time in power. While I must admit that the Republican's budgetary "death-row conversions" seem suspect, please keep in mind that the electorate threw the Republicans out of power after their wasteful ways became evident.

If the current stimulus package turns out to be a preview of President Obama's fiscal irresponsibility, the Democrats could suffer a similar fate.

Let them drink bottled

Editor - First, my thanks for including Paul Krugman as a regular contributor to your page. His Jan. 27 column ("Bad faith economics") on Republican opposition to President Obama's stimulus package has inspired me to proffer a "modest proposal": What say we vote on a proposition here in California to allow tax-cutting, less-government legislators to get their wishes by denying them (and their adoring constituents) any and all state government services?

It seems appropriate to start by withholding access to so much of Northern California's water, most of which ends up in conservative districts in the Central Valley and Southern California. Republican counties should be happy to pay for their own services as well, with little or no help from the wasteful, inefficient state government.

Once again, California would be able to set an example for the rest of the country; surely tax-cutting, less-government Republicans in Washington could be convinced to refuse wasteful "pork barrel" spending in their home districts as well.

Authority to harass

Editor - I am appalled by C.W. Nevius' support for the creation of so-called "drug-free zones" in the Tenderloin (" 'Drug-free zones' for Tenderloin," Jan. 27). How can officers from a police department with a history of racist behavior be trusted with the authority to harass individuals on the basis of nothing more than suspicion?

Nevius concedes that this policy "is likely to affect a large number of people of color," but still tolerates it because "the Tenderloin needs bold and dramatic action."

That's easy for someone who is not affected by this policy to say, but would Nevius accept being ordered to disperse from his neighborhood simply for being there? The First Amendment to the Constitution guarantees our right to peaceably assemble, not to peaceably assemble unless a police officer thinks that it's possible you might be doing something illegal.

Money saver

Editor - Jan. 27, the White House pulled support for Medicaid family planning expansion from its economic stimulus bill. Although President Obama promised to determine health policy on the basis of evidence and reason, we are now afraid that substantial progress in reproductive health care policy will be stymied by an all-too-familiar partisan sideshow.

In a bit of calculated rhetoric, House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio left a meeting with Obama Jan. 23 posing two questions: "How can you spend hundreds of millions of dollars on contraceptives? How does that stimulate the economy?"

The language that was removed would have expanded and eased states' ability to provide contraceptive services through Medicaid and would have saved taxpayer dollars at every level.

Last year, the nonpartisan and fiscally conservative Congressional Budget Office estimated that this law would save $400 million Medicaid dollars each year by preventing unintended pregnancies to women who would be eligible for Medicaid-paid pre-natal care and delivery if they became pregnant.

In addition to improving health care cost-efficiency and outcomes, access to family planning services directly stimulates the economy by enabling women and their families to fully participate in the workforce and to complete their educations. Their employers also benefit from lower health care insurance premiums.

Access to contraceptive services also helps keep personnel expenditures lower by saving on costs of rehiring, retraining, family medical leaves, substitution, replacement and loss of productivity that might otherwise occur. We all benefit from women being able to determine whether and when to have children.

Lon Newman, President

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